Closed Borders, Closed Minds

Guest Opinion

By Isiah Smith, Jr. | Oct. 11, 2025

I’m writing this from the Scandic hotel in Malmö, Sweden, far from the deliberate internal weakening of the United States of America. It is an incredible blessing to be able to leave the country and connect with people from various cultures and different worldviews. It is a blessing that refreshes and inspires, offering renewed focus and sparks of hope that we have not felt in our home country in a long time.

Our annual trips to Scandinavia, where our kids and grandkids live, remind us how close the world came to falling apart during World War II, when European countries like Denmark played a crucial role in fighting the Germans. Europeans have vivid memories of the death, destruction, and despair caused by the Second World War. They remember lessons we seem to have forgotten, to our detriment.

America and the rest of the “free world” were lucky when, in the 1930s and 1940s, the Germans followed their shortsighted prejudices into a dark tunnel of collapse. Had they not been blinded by hatred of “the other,” the entire world might be speaking German today.

The reason we do not speak the language of the conqueror today is neatly summarized in a footnote in Garrett M. Graff’s essential book, The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making & Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb. Early in this remarkable book, Graff states: “The truth about the much-feared German bomb effort is interesting itself: Germany never came close to an atomic weapon, in part because of the raging antisemitism that kept the Third Reich from involving Jewish scientists. There is a fascinating book to be written—one I’ve long hoped to do myself—about the U.S. pursuit of atomic intelligence in Europe.”

Many of America’s key achievements in research and science have been made possible by H-1B visas, which enable talented students from around the world to study in the U.S. Typically, students who attend Harvard, Yale, and other top American universities choose to stay in the U.S. after completing their studies, bringing some of the world’s brightest scientific minds and creative talents to our country.

The H-2B visa is a non-immigrant visa that lets U.S. employers temporarily hire foreign workers for non-agricultural jobs that are seasonal, peak-load, intermittent, or one-time. It’s important to remember that the job must be temporary with a specific start and end date, and the employer must prove that no qualified U.S. workers are available.

Now, that strategic advantage could disappear entirely because of the current administration’s efforts to restrict or, in some cases, eliminate those visas. Attacking such a vital part of the country thoughtlessly is to give up a benefit in exchange for a burden.

Although certain concerns about the H-1B program are valid, the idea that foreign workers take jobs away from Americans is not one of them. Immigrants working in the U.S. buy goods and services just like native-born workers do. This demand for goods and services creates additional demand, which means companies will need to grow and may have to hire more workers. This is a simple, fundamental law of classical economics (supply and demand), which the current administration seems to ignore.

The administration is not content to target foreign workers, but it has also expanded its focus to include international students. According to John K. Wilson, the author of the upcoming book The Attack on Academia, the administration’s attack on Harvard is part of an unprecedented assault in the history of American higher education. (For an insightful discussion on academia under the Trump administration, Mr. Wilson’s Academe Blog is a great place to start.)

By invoking the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952—during McCarthyism!—which allows the deportation of noncitizens if the Secretary of State “has reasonable ground to believe” that their presence would cause “serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States,” the administration has revoked the visas of at least 300 international students.

The Trump administration has used its economic influence over university contracts to push a conservative agenda that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and demands the silencing of pro-Palestinian protesters. International students and scholars are the most vulnerable victims of this attack on higher education, and the administration’s broader immigration policies threaten all international students.

The ultimate target is higher education itself. The Trump administration will continue to attack universities it views as ideological enemies by threatening their funding and academic freedom.

On Sept. 23 this year, Trump criticized the U.N. for “not even coming close to living up to its potential.” This is a rare example of Freudian projection. Without a hint of self-awareness, he warned Europe that it would be destroyed if it did not reject a “double-tailed monster” of migration and green energy policies.

A miserable and poorly informed opinion.

Isiah Smith, Jr. is a retired government attorney.